# WindowsXP and Excel 97 problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 10, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225 "2002-05-10T03:32:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ice1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ice1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ice1000)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/1 "2002-05-10T03:32:42Z")

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I created an Excel 97 model and put it on a disk.

When I took it to another PC (newer than mine…I’m using win98) that was running WindowsXP Excel 2002 wasn’t able to open the A drive. The PC said that the drive wasn’t accessible. I then tried to open it using My Computer. The PC said that the disk in drive A wasn’t formatted and prompted me to format it. I declined. I come back home, insert the disk and am able to access the file with no problem.

Is there something wrong with the OS or with the second PC’s disk drive? Has anyone run into this problem before?

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/2 "2002-05-10T03:38:46Z")

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Actually, there’s probably something wrong with the first PC’s disk drive; I had a computer with a similar problem; shortly before the floppy drive crashed completely, it wrote files that no other computer could read.

Have you considered emailing the file to the other computer? Using a portable ZIP drive?

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**Author:** ![ice1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ice1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ice1000)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/3 "2002-05-10T03:49:30Z")

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Greeeaaat…so my disk drive may be about to die. Is there any way to check if that’s the case? The device manager shows it as OK.

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**Author:** ![Juan3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@Juan3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juan3)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/4 "2002-05-10T05:17:03Z")

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There is a known problem with opening up a drives formatted in win 9x in 2000, alot of the times you can’t do it. I dont know about XP. The only solution is to email or find another medium.

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/5 "2002-05-10T07:20:10Z")

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Weird. I’ve never had a problem transferring files (Word 97 and Excel 97) between Windows 98 (Office 97), Windows 2000 (Office 97) and Windows XP (Office XP) on floppy disks.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windowsxp-and-excel-97-problem/108225/6 "2002-05-10T13:42:26Z")

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Sometimes a disk created on one system cannot be read on another system, and vice versa. This may be due to the fact that the FDD head is slightly out of alignment on one system.